In two-door passenger cars back seat passengers are inconvenienced in entering and leaving the vehicle, particularly on the passenger side, when the seat is in a back or intermediate position limiting passage, even when the seat back is tipped forward. The desirability of the individual front seat on the passenger side being in a full forward position to facilitate entrance and exit of the rear passenger has been recognized and various mechanical systems to accommodate this objective have been patented, such as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,931,995, 4,143,911, 4,159,147 and 4,440,442.
In the first of such references a latch release blade is provided with a bellcrank detent both mounted on an upper channel of fore and aft adjuster. A lever and link mechanism shifts, upon tilting the back forward, the latch release blade until locked by the detent to release the upper channel for forward movement along a lower channel. A detent release assembly is mounted on the lower channel to shift the detent to unlock the latch release blade.
In the second, the front seat is moved toward the front of the vehicle by tilting the seat back forward. On completion of entering or leaving the front seat is moved backward after returning the seat back to an upright position. Then the seat walk-in device automatically locks the front seat in a predetermined position.
In the third prior art reference, a latch releasing mechanism is pivotally mounted on a carrier member and moved to a predetermined release position when the back cushion is tilted, and a detent for the latch release blade is actuated by manually operable lever.
In each of such prior art devices the seat back is restored to upright position without reestablishing latch engagement for the seat and rearward movement of the seat a predetermined distance is employed to release a detent or the like to permit latch reengagement for the seat position.
The U.S. Patent to Drouillard et al discloses a seat position control mechanism with an inboard slave track and outboard control track arrangement having a pair of the same track assemblies arranged in vertically stacked relationship. One of the outboard track assemblies provides for horizontal adjustment of the seat and the other provides for movement of the seat to and from an easy entry position. A control cable arrangement interconnects a tilting seat back and latch mechanism for the other outboard track assembly to release a latch mechanism and permit movement of the seat to the easy entry position.
The seat position control mechanism of said co-pending application provides an easy entry vehicle seat arrangement having a dual acting seat back latch mechanism incorporating both horizontal seat cushion track adjustment and resilient forwardly locked positioning of the seat back to an easy entry position. The seat assembly is adjusted for easy entry by initially manually pivoting the upright seat back forwardly toward a tilted and latched position. The initial forward tilting movement of a seat back self-actuating resilient latch mechanism unlatches the seat track. Subsequent tilting of the seat back causes the latch mechanism to lock the seat back in a forward tilted position. The seat assembly is thus free for horizontal movement in a forward direction on the unlocked track for easy entry with the seat back held in its forwardly tilted locked position.
To return the seat assembly to a selected horizontal position the operator slides the tilted seat back and seat cushion assembly rearwardly on the unlocked track. When the rearward sliding effort on the seat exceeds the seat back latch spring bias, the seat back unlocks allowing the operator to return the seat back to its upright position. The unlocking of the seat back causes the track latching assembly to relock the track. Thus, by selecting the point during the rearward travel of the seat cushion at which the seat back is returned to its upright position the operator selects the horizontal location of the seat cushion. With the seat back in its upright position the operator may also use the track control handle to horizontally adjust the seat cushion in a conventional manner.
It is thus a feature of the co-pending application to provide the improved vehicle seat assembly described above having a dual self-actuating latch mechanism which permits easy rear seat entry by an operator pivoting the upright seat back to a forwardly tilted and latched position thereby initially unlocking the seat cushion track and subsequently locking the seat back in a forward tilted mode enabling the seat to be moved to an easy entry position.
A further object of the co-pending application is to provide an easy entry seat latch mechanism wherein the seat cushion can only be occupied by a passenger with the seat cushion horizontal adjustment track latched and the seat back in its normal upright position.
It is still another object of the co-pending application to allow either an operator standing outside the vehicle or a rear seat passenger to readily control the horizontal adjustment of the seat cushion by varing the position at which the operator exerts a force on the forwardly latched seat back when returning the seat assembly to a selected horizontal position.